Motor vehicles may be provided with roof ditches for preventing water, which accumulates on the roof from running into the interior of the vehicle through door openings, or onto occupants entering or alighting from the vehicle. A roof ditch generally includes a channel which guides the flow of water off of the vehicle roof. Typically, roof ditches are formed in sheetmetal panels of the upper greenhouse area of the vehicle. For example, roof ditches may be stamped in a roof panel. Roof ditches typically run along the length of the vehicle greenhouse area, such that any water or other liquid running into the ditches will tend to run off at the front or rear of the vehicle greenhouse area, away from vehicle door openings. Accordingly, roof ditches generally prevent spillage of water into the vehicle compartment or onto vehicle occupants. Additionally, roof ditches may provide aesthetic qualities to a vehicle roofline, or improve overall stiffness of a vehicle roof structure, such as where a roof ditch is stamped into a roof panel, generally increasing stiffness of the panel.
Vehicle accessories may be attached to the vehicle within or in the general vicinity of vehicle roof ditches using robust mounting features that can tolerate the load requirements typical of a vehicle accessory rack. For example, it may be convenient to secure accessory racks to the vehicle surface within a roof ditch, as the depth of the roof ditch generally provides a recessed mounting surface for the accessory rack. Further, mounting accessory racks to surfaces or features provided within the roof ditch generally reduces visual clutter on the roof of the vehicle.
Ditch moldings may be employed as aesthetic components of a vehicle by generally concealing roof ditches or providing a color in the vehicle roofline that contrasts with a vehicle body color, especially where the vehicle is not provided with accessories already secured to the roof ditch. Ditch moldings may also cover various features formed within a roof ditch, such as attachment features for vehicle accessories that would otherwise be attached to the roof ditch. This is especially useful where vehicles are produced in a mass manufacturing environment, with some vehicles receiving accessory racks and others receiving roof ditch moldings. However, ditch moldings generally do not require the more rugged, permanent mounting features typical of many accessory racks, since load requirements are lower for roof ditch moldings. Further, it is generally preferable to employ simpler snap-in fasteners enabling installation of ditch moldings by hand, and/or allow easy removal of the roof ditch molding.
Assembly of a vehicle having more rugged, durable features, e.g., an accessory rack, installed in some versions, and a simpler feature requiring less load-carrying ability, e.g., a roof ditch molding, installed in other versions, therefore generally necessitates separate mounting features for each of the different systems. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an accessory mounting system that allows for interchangeable installation of various accessory systems having disparate load requirements.